October 15, 2012 AT 11:22 am

NEW PRODUCT! MaKey MaKey by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum – Made by JoyLabz

Ever played Mario on Play-Doh or Piano on Bananas? Alligator clip the Internet to Your World.

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between. MaKey MaKey was invented by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum & Made by JoyLabz. Find out more details at makeymakey.com or watch the video at makeymakey.com.

What Can I Make? That’s up to you! First, load up a computer program or any webpage. Let’s say you load up a piano. Then, instead of using the computer keyboard buttons to play the piano, you can hook up the MaKey MaKey to something fun, like bananas, and the bananas become your piano keys.

Or let’s say you Google for an online Pacman game and draw a joystick with a pencil. Then you can play Pacman by touching the drawing.

How Does it Work? Alligator Clip two objects to the MaKey MaKey board. For example, you and an apple.

When you touch the apple, you make a connection, and MaKey MaKey sends the computer a keyboard message. The computer just thinks MaKey MaKey is a regular keyboard (or mouse). Therefore it works with all programs and webpages, because all programs and webpages take keyboard and mouse input.

What materials work with MaKey Makey? Any material that can conduct at least a tiny bit of electricity will work. Here are some materials people have used in our workshops including Ketchup, Pencil Graphite, Finger Paint, Lemons, etc.

Other materials that work great: Plants, Coins, Your Grandma, Silverware, Anything that is Wet, Most Foods, Cats and Dogs, Aluminum Foil, Rain, and hundreds more…